Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	absolute_a	account_n	action_n	17	3	6.0498	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51839	XVIII sermons on the second chapter of the 2d Epistle to the Thessalonians containing the description, rise, growth, and fall of Antichrist : with divers cautions and arguments to establish Christians against the apostacy of the Church of Rome : very necessary for these times / by that late reverend and learned divine, Thomas Manton ...	Manton, Thomas, 1620-1677.	1679 (1679)	Wing M522; ESTC R7577	216,743	470

Reign so many years the Pope is said to sit so long It 's his Sedes his Cathedral or Seat And again here he is said to sit as God that is as God Incarnate for Christ is the true and proper Lord of the Church None should Reign there but he And the name of this Man of sin is not Antitheos but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not one that directly invadeth the properties of the supreme God but of God Incarnate or Christ as Mediatour he sitteth negatively not as a Minister but positively as supreme Lord upon Earth whom all must adore and worship and Kings and Princes kiss his feet In short he usurpeth the Authority due to Christ. Now I shall prove that by a double argument 1. By usurping the Titles due to Christ. For he that will make bold with names will make bold with things as to be Sponsus Ecclesiae the Husband of the Church As Innocent called the Church Sponsam suam his Spouse Caput Ecclesiae the head of the Church which is proper to the Saviour of the body Supreme visible and universal head which only Christ is who hath promised to be with her to the end of the World and will be visible to those who do at length approach his Court in Heaven where his Seat is To be chief Pastor Christs own Title And when the chief Shepherd shall appear 1 Pet. 4.5 To be Pontifex Maximus The greatest High Priest Whereas Christ alone is called the High priest of our profession Heb. 3.1 and the great High Priest over the House of God Heb. 4.14 So his Vicar General upon Earth whereas the ancient Church attributed this to the Holy Ghost calling it Vicariam vim spiritus sancti he supplies his room and absence Now Titles including Power certainly they are not to be usurped without Warrant Therefore to call the Pope the chief and only Shepherd and the like It is to usurp His Authority to whom these things originally belong Secondly He doth usurp the thing implyed by the Titles the Authority over the Church which is only due to God Incarnate Supreme Authority may be considered either as to the claim right property and preheminence which belong to it or to the exercise 1. The claim and right pretended He sitteth as God in the Temple of God that is by vertue of his office there claimeth the same power that Christ had which is fourfold 1. An unlimited power over all things both in Heaven and Earth This was given to Christ Matth. 28.18 and the Pope as his Vicar challengeth it But where is the Plea and ground of the claim For one to set up himself as a Vice-God without Warrant is Rebellion against Christ. To set himself in his Throne without his leave surely none is fit to have this Authority that hath not his power to back and to administer and govern all things for the Churches good which power God would trust in the hands of no Creature 2. An Universal Headship and Supremacy over all the Churches of Christ. Now this supreme power over all Christians is the right of God Incarnate and whosoever challengeth it sits as God in the Temple of God and it is very derogatory to the comfort of the faithful that they should in all things depend upon one man as their supreme Pastor or else be excluded from the hope of Salvation Certainly this power as to matter of fact is impossible to be managed by any man considering the vast extent of the World and the variety of Governments and different Interests under which the people of God find shelter and protection and the multitude and diversity of those things which are comprized in such a Government And as to matter of right it i●●acrilegious For Christ never instituted a●● such Universal Vicar and Bishop It is a dignity too high for any Creature none is fit to be Universal Head of the Church but one that is God as well as Man 3. Absolute Authority so as to be above controul When a mortal man should pretend to be so absolute as to give no account of his actions that it shall not be lawful to be said to him what dost thou and all his Decrees must be received without Examination or Complaint this is such a Soveraignty as belongs to none but God Job 9.12 Behold he taketh away who will hinder him who can say unto him what dost thou Now this is in their Canon law that the Pope is to be judged by no man that though he should lead Millions of Souls into Hell none can say Domine cur ita facis 4. Infallibility and freedom from errour which is the property of God he neither is deceived nor can deceived Let God be true and every man a Lyar. Now that corrupt and fallible man should arrogate this to himself such an unerring in judgment is to usurp divine honour in matter of right and in matter of fact For the Pope to arrogate this is as great a contradiction to all sense and reason as if a man sick of the Plague or any other mortal Disease should say that he was immortal and in that part wherein the Disease was seated 2. As to the exercise there are two acts of supreme Authority 1. Legislation 2. Judgment 1. Legislation It is the peculiar and incommunicable property of Christ to be Lord and Lawgiver to the Church Isa. 33.22 The Lord is our Iudge The Lord is our Lawgiver the Lord is our King he will save us God alone hath such interest in his people as to prescribe supreme or universal Laws to them and we are his Subjects Jam. 4.12 There is one Lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy Now whosoever will make Laws that shall immediately bind the Conscience they invade Christs Soveraignty This is spiritual Tyranny and the worst sort of Tyranny to arrogate a power over the subjects of Christ and their Consciences as Lord of their faith He that taketh upon him to rescind and make void his Institutions and Ordinances and set his own in their place and give that reverence and honour to them which only belongeth to the Ordinances of Christ He is Antichrist whatever he be 2. As to Judgment It is an exercising an Authority no less than Divine So to take upon him to absolve man from his duty to God or the penalty which sin hath made his due The one is done by Dispensations the other by Indulgences And therefore whoever by Dispensations antiquates and dispenses with the Laws of God himself is thus guilty As dispensing with marrying the Brothers Wife Nay one of the Popes dispensed with one that took his own Sister to Wife I do not alledge this so much for the particula● facts but to shew the power which they challenged to be inherent in themselves Bellarmine saith Christ hath given Peter and his Successors a power faciendi peccatum non peccatum to make a sin to be no sin and again If the Pope should